


Young and Tragic

by leap4joyak



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Multi, more to be added - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leap4joyak/pseuds/leap4joyak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here's how it works:</p>
<p>The /JONAS/ will choose a target, a ship, one large enough to have extra rations and medical supplies.  Take only as much as the ship can do without and have no one die. </p>
<p>They do not take prisoners.</p>
<p>They do not kill without reason.</p>
<p>The supplies are taken to rebel outposts (the ones that still exist) and struggling settlements on the edge of the System.</p>
<p>That is how it works.</p>
<p>Until suddenly it isn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heart's a Prisoner

**Author's Note:**

> This is late, and only partial. the rest is coming soon. Written for the Young Avengers Reverse Big Bang. Thanks to dawnstep for beta'ing.
> 
> The title of the entire thing comes from the song [Young and Tragic](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlcmGZLYM84) by Dead Man's Bones. That song is a very good approximation of the tone of this entire story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter comes from the song [Werewolf Heart](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bKAAKX9pM4) by Dead Man's Bones.

When Tommy was smaller, he had played - by himself, of course - on the ship that would one day become the _JONAS_. Then, it was called the _Wanda_ , because Tommy's father had loved a woman of that name once and produced a son from it. The name was unlucky, because ships were only ever named after dead crew, it was tradition. Pietro had never been one for tradition, though, so the name stayed and the ship stayed cursed. 

Anyways, when Tommy was a boy he played pretend that he was the most feared and important pirate in the universe. He played that he killed the evil men that enslaved his mother, and defeated the Coalition, and liberated the slaves and outer colonies, all on his own. The first mate of the ship, a man that very few people liked called Logan, saw him playing these games by himself, and gave him a very valuable lesson.

"Kid," he said, his strange large hands moving too quickly for Tommy's liking, "you have spunk. You're smart and ambitious, and with some training you could be a decent fighter, from what I saw. But any man that wants to take on the Coalition," he paused, making sure Tommy was looking him straight in the eye, "that's a man that needs a crew."

Tommy was not old enough to know what 'crew' meant outside of 'people that are paid to do work and be nice to Tommy', and he was more focused on asking, "Will you teach me how to fight, Mr. Commander Logan?" in the cute and demanding way that only kids can.

Logan sighed. "If your dad clears it," Logan said, "yeah. I will. Just so one day you don't get yourself killed. I won't have you dying when I could have prevented it."

So First Mate Logan became Combat Teacher Logan, and Tommy learned how to fight _very well_ in a variety of ways - with swords, with his fists, with old-fashioned guns and new-fashioned laser guns.

When Tommy was a bit bigger, the navigator died in a Tragic Piratical Accident. The new navigator was fond of literature, and when she heard about Tommy's Quest (as Logan had taken to calling it) she insisted that he also be taught about philosophy (though when she taught about it, it was always Philosophy) and Morality, and Ethics. He learned it, just like he learned the lessons his father set out for him, but what he learned _best_ is that giving people what they want is usually a better tool than money.

When Tommy was no longer allowed to be called small (as he was larger than Mr. Commander Logan) but not yet allowed to be called big (as he was still a head and a half shorter than his father) the _Tony_ (renamed after the dead navigator) got a hail from a small, and in all honesty _insignificant_ , planet called Margarita. The woman who his father had fallen in love with a million years ago, Wanda, had found them. And she sent a request.

XXX

 

Eli is not easily scared. He is scared now.

The reports have been announced: when the crews of Coalition ships don’t stay down, don't fall asleep, they die, it’s that simple. There’s blood and arrows on the floor of at least of thirty percent of the Coalition's fleet - _seventy five percent_ , in this sector. 

The blood? It belongs to the soldiers, the people who were brave and stupid enough to think they could take these _pirates_ down, _if_ they could be brave enough, _if_ they could be smart enough, _if_ they could be strong enough, fast enough, _daring_ enough.

(It hasn't happened yet).

The arrows? They belong to the Pirates. They are almost always black shafted and very rarely without blood - or so has been reported. Their tips are of an alloy, strong enough to cut though bone - if the pictures with the reports is anything to go by. The infrequency of a miss is enough to make the best afraid - if common sense is to be applied.

So, when the Noise starts signaling the Pirates' imminent arrival on board the ship, Eli does as he has always done: denied his fear. He puts in earplugs (that he takes out as soon as his comrades are down for the count; the pirates have not been one to put their own in more danger than necessary - if the survivors of the attacks are to be believed), and hides under his desk until he can get an advantage over the people moving very near to silent through the corridors of the ship.

(The only reason Eli can hear them is because he knows that they're there). 

The Pirates come into command, and Eli can't hear them over the pounding of his heart. There are two, dressed completely in black.

“As acting commander of this ship, I order you to stand down,” he stands behind the captain’s chair and raises a phaser, and an ease that he can't understand settles into his shoulders.

“As second officer of the pirate vessel JONAS, I order you to fuck off and put your hands behind your head,” a snarky male voice says from the shadows.

"No," is all that Eli has time to authoritative deny before an arrow shoots through his hand, making him drop the gun. He shrieks in pain, crouches in it, and can just make out the same snarky voice saying, “Finish the job, Kate.”

“Tom,” a female voice says, _pleads_ , behind the other console.

“We need to get back, Kate, _finish_ ,” apparently Tom says. _That kind of snark would be beaten out in less than a week_ , Eli thinks through bright flashes of pain in his hand. He clutches it to his chest and closes his eyes, though it doesn't help.

“We need to take him back, Tom. Billy’d want to see this,” she says. Eli vaguely hears her cross the small deck to the other side of the Captain's Console, ostensibly to look at him, but it seems distant. He can't hear anything over the blood in his ears.

“If Billy had wanted to see anything on _this_ damn boat, he wouldn't have abandoned us to do take it on our own,” Tom says, crossing to stand next to her. Eli opens his eyes to see the pair standing there, no discernible difference in them, back lit as they are by the few console lights that remain on from when they cut the power and the stars outside the windows. They look like two grim reapers ready to dole out his fate, and it's a good thing he can't be superstitious. "It'll be easier and less messy for you to do it Kate, it's too much effort for me."

“Yes, there’s a _reason_ you don’t get a weapon on raids, Tommy,” she says, not really paying attention to her argument, “Just trust me for once, Billy isn’t going to want this kid killed.”

Tom sighs, and Eli know the argument was won, that he’d live for now at least. “Fine, let me tell America. And you’re taking care of it, Kate.” They talk too fast for Eli to get a word in edgewise, not that he _would_.

“Understood,” she says, quietly, and jumps over the console to crouch in front of Eli. Up close, he can see that she has kind eyes and dark hair, and he's momentarily distracted by a bit of bang escaping from her black hat. “How bad is your hand?” the girl asks, lowly. In another context it might be sexy.

Eli shrugs, his training working against him. _Enemy, enemy, kill_ , his mind directs him, more insistent than any scream could be. He doesn’t, though, makes no signal of what he’s being told to do, and he doesn’t know why. The adrenaline from the fear has faded, replaced by the simple brutality that he knew he signed up for. But he doesn’t know why he’s not scared anymore. The mantra of _protect the ship_ and _kill intruders_ fades a bit when she pulls him up with gentle hands, and leads him forward by the elbow, stays behind him as they begin walking out. He see a knife in her hand and knows it’s for him. There's no reason for him _not_ to be scared, or _not_ be trying to kill the both of them and escape, but there's _something_ stirring in his chest.

There’s a long suppressed part of him, deep in his chest, that thinks it’s finally home.


	2. A Dark Heart is Beating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter is from a song called [In the Room Where You Sleep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwKVhSZAhE) by Dead Man's Bones.

_Do it for Kate._

_When there were too many people on earth, too much for its limited resources, we expanded; first to Mars, and as technology advanced, farther.  Though the earth remains the Head Planet, the main power is held by the Coalition, the military caste.  Society stratified, to keep itself safe from perceived threats from lower classes and later lower castes, and those who disagree(d) with the rule of the Coalition._

_You are here because you were eligible to move from the Worker Caste to the Military Caste and have accepted any training that will come with this.  You have completed and passed your examinations.  You are our newest Private.  You are now Private Eli Bradley._

_Your control phrase: Do it for Kate._

XXX

The ship is hot.  Well, that’s not really accurate, the _dry cargo bay_ is hot.  But, as heat is subjective, _Eli_ is hot.

_What kind of pirate ship doesn’t have a prison hold?_ he wonders, and lower in his mind, _the kind with pirates that don’t take prisoners.  I’ve let down the Coalition.  I’m not doing it right.  But at least I’m not scared anymore.  Fear is useless, it lets down the Coalition._

There’s shouting reverberating through the ship, but he can’t make out voices.  There are at least four different people, though, and Eli doesn't supposed he has many supporters in those ranks.  He doesn’t know how to feel about that, but not feeling was the point of his training.

The shouting stops, suddenly, and a few minutes later he hears the padlock keeping the dry cargo - and, by extension, _him_  - safe clicking open.  A girl who looks no older than sixteen drops in after pulling the hatch (in the ceiling) up.  Eli stands from the side of the crate he's been exhaustedly leaning on to face her, still holding his injured right hand gingerly.  The girl is pretty, in a way; she has dirt on her face and hands that looks as if it's always been there, but her hair shines and she looks tragically optimistic.  She's also holding a first aid kit, and that's what Eli focuses on.

"I'm Cassie," the girl says, not offering a hand, "Are you still bleeding?"

"No, ma'am," Eli answer. _Always answer questions_ , a voice from the past says in the back of his head.   _Always answer medical staff_.

"Don't 'ma'am' me, I won't answer.  Call me Cassie."  Eli doesn't respond, doesn't know how to begin to respond.  "I'm here to look at your hand," Cassie says, looking at the cradled appendage.  She starts coming forward slowly, giving Eli time to back away if he wants to.  He gives her his hand without thinking too hard about it, just _if it's working right, I might be able to get out_.  Cassie dresses the wound tenderly, but doesn't flinch when Eli hisses in pain.  It's over quick, anyway.

"Kate didn't hit any bones, in case you were wondering.  There's some nerve damage, from what I can tell, and if we ever get a proper doctor on this ship they might be able to fix the tear to your tendon, but your hand should be usable for the time being," Cassie said as she finished the dressing.

Eli nodded, and let his hand fall to his side.  He didn't say anything else.

Cassie stood, gathering her things into the first aid kit, housed by a dusty red tool box.  "I'm going.  Yell if there's anything you need.  We'll bring food down to you, if we remember."

XXX

Billy lets his feet take him where he wants to be - or rather, where he needs to be.  He's meeting a contact, a former slaver who now makes most of his money helping slaves _escape_  who was on Margarita around the time that Billy's mother was leaving it.  If anyone knew where Wanda was, it would be this guy.

Disembarking is easy, for him.  Now, at the age of eighteen, Billy has spent the majority of his life on some sort of ship.  Three years when he was a baby, being transported around with his mother; five on the _JONAS_ , known under many different names; the last one on some variety of transports, going around the system, trying to find some definitive answer for what happened to his mother.  He knows it's unlikely to happen.  He knows she's probably long since ash in some heating furnace during the Margaritan winter.  But, if there's an answer to be found, Billy needs to find it.

So he travels around, trying to find some hint of her, and he talks to the most seedy of people to try to see if, in their travels, they might have come across an incredibly beautiful, moderately insane woman, and hopes.

On this particular day, he's on a moon as close as people can get to Margarita without being _on_  that red rock without being sucked through the asteroid belt on the outer edge of the system.  (No one's come back from that belt).  The man he's going to meet sent a transport, a small car driven by a very bad driver, and he climbs in with trepidation.

The car is fast, and he's at the front house very quickly.  He might have bruises from all the sharp turns they made, but it's nothing bad, he's had worse.  The house is shabby, looks as if it's been abandoned which in the over-crowded asteroid they're on (Billy has no love of any planet) is remarkable.  But by the red lantern in the upper left hand window, and the small spirals above the door mark it as a safe-house for runaways, if they can get there, and this is the place Billy has come to seek.

Billy exists the car as casually as he can, pulling the ratty navy blue duffle-backpack that he's had with him from where he had set it on the miniscule seat.  The stairs up to the house almost collapse under his feet, and he pushed open the door with very little effort.

The room he enters is dirty and there are holes in the window slats.  There look to be mattresses on the floor, from honest squatters, and it smells like stale sweat and sex.  And there's a very blonde, very handsome boy just inside the door.

XXX

When Kate was a child, she was a princess.  A literal, honest-to-god, dress-wearing, tea-drinking, going-to-inherit-the-throne-of-her-mostly-god-forsaken-moon-so-long-as-her-sister-got-married-to-someone-from-off-the-planet-as-she-was-likely-to princess.  She remembers being treated with kid gloves (and having that analogy explained to her) by her mother, sister, the servants, everyone.  Except her distant father, in his study or at the mostly symbolic parliament building.  Except by Mrs. Bradley, the cook.  Except by Billy and Eli.

Eli's grandmother was a cook, the cook, the best cook on the planet by every single one of the small town like competitions they had, and she worked at the palace; she lived there too, in one of the outbuildings for servants, and brought Eli with her.

Billy's mother was a slave.  Her name was Wanda, and she had the barcode on her arm, the chip beneath it.  Wanda was probably the most beautiful woman Kate had ever seen, which boded well neither for her nor her progeny (who were, as far as Kate knew, limited to Billy).  Billy had a barcode too, but no chip yet.  The slave laws prohibited it until he turned twelve.

So she had her playmates.  The games that they played were innocent, mostly, adventure games where they remained the heroes they thought they could be but never were.  Eli and Kate got married at the end, and Billy was given his freedom for helping to save their homeland from the aliens/attacking soldiers/grain fungus/evil witches.  It was a beautiful time.

Their moon was often described as idyllic.  It had perpetually light green-blue skies that terraforming hadn't been able to quite alleviate; there were huge pink peonies that were shipped out to other planets (where people could afford such frivolities as peonies) because the environment was so suited to them; there was a native grain that had huge protein and sugar stores, called oors, that was transported to planets where the people were hungry and poor enough to eat the foul tasting stuff.  Margarita (for that was the planet's name) had green trees and clear, still water.  It was beautiful enough that they turned away people who wanted to settle there; that their customs was hell to get through.  And one day, if all went according to plan, Kate would inherit it all.

But things are lousy at going according to plan.


End file.
